What’s behind Australian investors’ reluctance to venture into Southeast Asia?

“I think the basic impediment to Australian investors not coming into Southeast Asian markets in a meaningful way, or at all, is a historical preoccupation with developed Western markets and a lack of risk appetite for so-called developing markets,” he said.

Australian investors, particularly institutional investors such as large managed funds, tended to prefer “neatly packaged opportunities in jurisdictions with familiar regulatory and financial and political systems”, Walker said.